In the states I shopped at my local co-op. I would pay $6 for a pint of organic blueberries and $8-9 for a pound of bison or grass-fed beef. I bought free-range chicken and cage-free eggs and only organic fruits and vegetables. I don’t have kids or a family to support so I could afford it… well actually I couldn’t afford it, but it was a priority for me, not only for optimal health, but to ‘do my part’ to reduce the amount of damage being done to the planet via destructive chemicals used in mainstream farming... ( I have trouble calling it conventional farming because in my mind “conventional” means “traditional” or “old-school” and I just don’t see the early farmers using Round Up. When I was in Peru, the local markets were full of beautiful produce and there was no such thing as labeling something “organic” because it was ALL organic. Something that continues to baffle me about a country claiming to be developed (I’m speaking about the U.S. here) is that it seems that an average family of four, earning a middle-class income, struggles to pay for “conventionally grown” food, so that the idea of shopping for organic products is out of the question. The stuff that is better for you and for the earth is out of reach. Sick. Anywho... all of this is to say that I’m a conscientious shopper and was (and continue to be) concerned about the source of the food that I’m buying and consuming.
As I mentioned, there are several places and ways to shop for food. One is to walk down your neighborhood streets: Here you will find shops/garages/spaces/and street vendors where farmers and / or middle men sell everything from veggies and fruits
to nuts and beans
to shrimp in tubs and fish in bags.
As this is the most questionable type of grocery shopping, I tend to steer clear. Also because there are no price tags on this food, so some command of the language is necessary. The exception to this for me is the fruit vendors. The best strawberries I’ve had here have been on the street. I was initially sucked in because it seemed that 13RMB worth of strawberries could make or break some of these peoples’ days...
So another option is to shop at the local grocer and / or the big supermarkets. The upside to this is that the potential for not only a wee bit of written English on the packaging but also at the bigger places there is usually an organic section. Or at least there is a section labeled organic. How do I know that it’s really organic? I don’t. The downside to the organic labeled food is that they package it excessively for some reason, which just seems to defeat a big part of the purpose, right?
So I can buy over-packaged, organic-labeled produce...
or unpackaged questionably grown produce.
Actually, it’s ALL questionable so I end up doing an extreme washing on it all anyway and putting all of the packaging in the recycling bin with hopes that it really is organic and the packaging really does get reincarnated.
Some of the fun and/or different stuff at the supermarket a.k.a. "Hypermarket."
Dumplings! Dumplings! and more Dumplings!
BIG BLOCKS OF TOFU! and the bags of soybeans that make it...
Lots of tubes of processed meat
RRRRRRRIIIICE!!
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An assortment of bulk frozen... things.
The Great Wall of Oils
Dried steering-wheel-shaped hunks of seaweed
Or fresh seaweed and fishies on ice
Bags of Octopus...er... Squid...er... Jellyfish?
You CAN buy eggs in cartons... but why? when you can just pick your own and put them (very carefully) in a bag?
Peanut Butter of the Chinese persuasion.
Milk is not sold in cartons or jugs as it is in the states and it is not fresh. It is packaged and sold in tetra paks and could be 6months old by the time you buy it... but reportedly still safely consumable.
Also sold in chocolate and ... other flavors
Glutinous rice balls anybody??
How about some Hot-Tingle Flavor noodles??
If you don't like those, you could always try some from the Hot and Sour Family
After that you can enjoy a nice cup of any of the 65,000 varieties of hua cha or flower tea
Like good ol' Land O' Lakes cheese imported from MN!
or some of THE best coffee in the world:
Sooooo, other than the checkout clerk saying ni hao and telling me how much the total is (which 90% of the time I still can’t understand and have to look at the register) there need be very little spoken Chinese involved in the grocery shopping experience. But I’m realizing that I’m limiting my shopping encounters because asking for something is out of the question at this point and so I am curbing the choices to what I can decipher on my own.
There HAVE been language barrier incidents while grocery shopping... like the day I was buying some yogurt, just as I had done at least 3 or 4 times by this point, and the checkout lady asked, “blabbity blabby blabb blabby blabma??” and even though I had learned how to say the phrase, “I’m sorry, I don’t understand, “I don’t speak Chinese” IN CHINESE and had practiced and practiced and practiced this phrase and tested it out on a Chinese co-worker and received glowing reviews on my pronunciation... when it came time to USE it in a practical situation all I could do was shake my head and say, “uh... um... I don’t... know.” She ended up keeping the yogurt and I’m still not sure why. This happened in my first month here and I am happy to say that things have progressed since then. I HAVE used that phrase and others such as, “Please speak more slowly” (not that it will make a difference) and “I only know a few words in Chinese” several times successfully, but the look I get from them after saying these phrases is the facial equivalent to,”Then, why are you here??” So, I do still fear the potential questions from the checkout clerk every time I shop...not to mention the possibility of having my yogurt held hostage.
